Month: February 2011

The house passed muster – it was inspected by a structural engineer today. He reports that, other than minor mortar cracking in the brickwork in one spot, the house is sturdy and sound. Once the report is passed on to the bank and the insurers, we should be good to go.

Last weekend we started looking for a house to buy. It’s a really slim market at the moment – not many people are selling. Understandable, since most home-owners are going through the EQC claim process and are reluctant to sell under those circumstances.

But on Saturday we took a look at a couple of possibilities. The first one was a 1955s weatherboard bungalow. It has been completely redecorated inside, but still needed a lot of work on the outside. It ticked a lot of boxes and we left feeling really positive.

And then we went to the second place. This ticked a lot more boxes. It’s summerhill stone – not popular, but low maintenance perfection for us. The place was built in 1972 and has been a family home since then (one careful lady owner). It looks like your grandma’s place, but we can see the potential. Yep, this was the one for us.

Since then, things have moved fast. We thought about it all day Saturday, contacted the agent on Sunday, presented an offer on Monday, and signed the contract on Tuesday. Now it’s Wednesday and we are on to engineering reports and lawyers and whatnot. And, all going well, we will own our home on the 17th of March.

Just because our lives weren’t quite busy enough (the wedding is in TWO weeks), Stephen and I recently kicked off the process of buying a house. So last week the bank gave us a pre-approved home loan. We have a licence to hunt.

It’s a difficult time to be buying a house – there is uncertainty about the structural integrity of a lot of homes in Christchurch right now, and nowhere more so than the area we are hunting (Avonside/Dallington).

It is sad to drive around the area, seeing the busted-up streets and houses. But now we have new things to consider. Do we want to live in this street? Will it need complete repaving? Is there underlying liquefaction? Do we want to take all that on?

Luckily we are in no danger of inadvertently buying a house with structural damage that gives us problems later. All homes purchased in Canterbury require a structural engineering report. If there is damage, we can’t buy it. Pretty straightforward (for us anyway).

You might wonder why we are choosing to jump into the market right now, rather than wait until things settle. There are still a lot of unknowns about where the housing market is going in Canterbury, but the sector is forecast to boom once rebuilding gets underway in 2012-2013. We are hoping to jump on the home-ownership train before this happens. So exciting times for us!

Stephen found these yesterday. They are the rules that were carefully crafted by me, him, Miss B and Meagle over the course of our trip to Armageddon in Wellington last April (read about Armageddon-it).
All road trips have their special memories, and this is the artifact of ours. Enjoy our randomness.

Rules for the Wellington Trip

Megan may not eat Doritos before 7:30am.

Bronwen can only be annoying between 10-10:15pm daily.

Stephen can only play Bejewelled Blitz for 5 hours per day.

Bebe must eat every two hours.

Bebe is not allowed to say stupid shit….. Oh wait… SHE CAN’T HELP IT!!!!!

Nos mo king.

The first rule of the Wellington Trip is DON’T MENTION THE WELLINGTON TRIP.

Megan is aloud to coulor in Bronwen’s coulering book bitween 7.30 to 8.00am.

What happens on the trip stays on Facebook.

No hanky panky at any time on the train, ferry, at the hotel and on the plane.

Bronwen must buy Megan, Stephen and Bebe breakfast and lunch.

Rule 11 is not hapning and is not a rule.

No crying what so ever, if this occurs the person crying must go on the viewing platform until further notice.

It is not ‘four house’, it is ‘four houses’ or ‘the fourth house’. This rule applies to the other houses too.

Complainers get sent to the naughty corner.

The naughty corner is defined by those not sitting in the naughty corner. It is an area designated by said non-naughties.

Puking must be contained within sickbags. No throwing up in Bronwen’s handbag.

Having a tantrum and crying will not get you what you want, therefore you must remain calm if you feel sick or if you don’t get your way.

If someone has been jinxed, then calling them Bebe to unjinx is PERFECTLY FINE because it is a name even if it’s not the one on the birth certificate.

Rule 19 is invalid as from now. Brigid can only be un-jinxed by someone who says her full name (the name on her birth certificate) ‘Brigid Susan Thompson’.

There shalt be no frivolous rules.

People who make rules that invalidate other rules will get a spanking and sent to bed with no dinner. The exceptions to this rule are rule 12 and rule 20 which were passed before rule 22 came into effect and therefore pre-date it.

The person that gives the spanking is evil and will receive one back.

The three Frompson girls are allowed to look and wink at cute boys, even if they have a boyfriend. However, the Frompson male is not allowed to look at other girls as that would just be wrong.

Bronwen will NOT move around heaps when she is in bed as Megan gets annoyed.